Okay guys, as dumb as it sounds, I havent much of a clue on how to do pads and rotors on a car (yet I work in a parts store). Im about to attempt my first brake job, on my g/f's car, which is a 95 geo metro, but need to do my 84 T/A soon. If you guys could give me some tips for a first timer, Id appreciate it. Im sure I could figure it out if I just ripped in (thats how I learn about everything else) but brakes are important and if I do them wrong something drastic could happen, not just my typical "car wont start" type thing. Thanks a bunch.

 

I'd call myself a weekend mechanic.. but here goes

The pads are easy. You just take the front wheels off, unscrew the two allen head bolts, and the caliper comes off. You want to use some wire or string to hold the caliper and not dangle from the line. You don't want it to hang by the brake line. From that point, you can look at the front of your rotors and all the pads. The pads might be stuck on the caliper, but I had one fall off. Just make sure ya keep em straight and watch where they go and where they came from. You can mix them up real good if you are putting new ones on *chuckle*

After you get your new pads, you basically just stick them back in where the old ones were. If I remember correctly, one side of each caliper will have a little clip thingie that you'll see and take note of when you take the old pads out.

For the rotors, take a look at em, and maybe spray soem brake cleaner on them. If they look good and flat, they are probably fine. If you notice a throbbing in the pedal when you brake, that means your rotors need turned/machined/trued. To get that done, you'll have to take the rotors off, bring them to a shop, and they'll do it for ya. Hopefully you don't need that done, because the rotors are heavy and tricky with the bearing floating in the middle of them. They aren't hard to get off, but they are pain once you have them off because you "should" repack the bearings, clean everything up etc before you put them back on. So if they don't need any work done on em, leave them on there Not to mention they weigh about 15 pounds and don't feel good on your foot.

Then you reattach the caliper, making sure each pad stays on the caliper. You might want to have soemone lightly press the brake pedal while you watch to make sure everything looks right and the pads hit at the same time. Then stick your wheels on, but don't lower it yet. Turn the wheel both ways and see how much drag there is. If there is too much, one of the pads isn't on right or something is just plain mucked up. They probably won't turn by themselves, but a moderate amount of drag will be there until the pads wear in.


Brake pads are easy, and I hope everything goes good for you

Your on your own for drum brakes

 

Thanks a ton! I do get to do the rotors, the brakes shake pretty bad. What should I pick up in addition to normal hand tools to do this? How do I remove the rotors? How about packing the bearings? Do I just get some grease and load them up? Ive got the pads and rotors, and Im gonna yank a wheel off tonite and take a peek at what Id need to get for it.

 

There is a dust cap in the middle of the hub. Use a screw driver to pry it off. Now you should see the nut and outer bearing. There is a cotter pin locking the nut in place. Take a pair of dikes and pull it out. Next, unscrew the nut. I like to place all this greasy stuff on paper towel. After the nut is off slide the rotor forward some and pull off the outer bearing. Now I like to reinstall the the nut a turn or two. This allows me to use it to remove the inner bearing and grease seal by pulling the rotor into the nut. Its kinda hard to explain but I think you will see what I mean when you get this far. If you don't want to do that, the ignore the part about reinstalling the nut and just pull the rotor off. If you do this use a screwdriver to pry the seal off the back side of the rotor. Now remove the inner bearing.

Wipe off the bearings and carefully inspect them. If they are blue or scored or missing rollers, replace them. Since you said you work in parts store, I would just replace them. Get new grease seals no matter what though. They are only a couple dollars anyway.

Now take some grease in the palm of your hands. Mash the bearing between your hands. You are trying to push as much grease into the bearings as possible. Also, coat the outside of the rollers with grease. It is not necessary to fill the cavity of the hub with grease because it does not circulate.

Reinstall the inner bearing and tap the NEW seal onto the rotor. Put the rotor onto the spindle making sure it goes on smoothly and completly. Next, install the outer bearing and lock washer. Install the nut until it just snugs against the washer. While spinning the rotor snug up the nut until the rotor won't move. Now loosen the rotor and install the nut to where it just touches the washer and then 1/4- 1/2 turn more. Place a new cotter pin through the hole in the spindle and secure it by bending the tabs in opposite directions. This keeps the nut from loosening on its own. Must have in place or bad things may happen! Reinstall your dust cap and your done. Spin the rotor again to make sure it spins freely and smoothly.

Have fun...its a pretty simple job but you will get dirty...

 

BTW, its never dumb to ask questions about working on cars. No one was born with the knowledge to do any kind of work. What would be dumb, would be for someone who does not know what they are doing to do some brake work, or anything, and mess up. Putting themselves and/or others in danger because they did not ask or had to much pride to ask questions is dumb...